Baksei Chamkrong Temple, Angkor, Cambodia.

16th August, 2012 (our 37th anniversary).

The first temple we saw, Baksei Chamkrong, is one of the first temples constructed of durable material such as bricks and laterite and with decoration in sandstone.

Completed during the reign of Rajendravarman II (944-968), Baksei Chamkrong is a small Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Shiva and once held a golden image of him.

The name Baksei Chamkrong means "The Bird Who Shelters Under Its Wings" and comes from a legend. In it, the king tried to flee Angkor during a siege and then a huge bird landed and sheltered him under its wings.

 

While I was wandering around the base of the temple taking pictures, I looked up, and there was Pat (in the hat) on the top floor.  The pyramid measures 27 metres across at the base and 15 at the summit for an overall height of 13 metres. 

From where I was standing, he looked a lot further up than that.

 

Back view of the temple.  As the building is so symmetrical, it looks much the same from the back as from the front, except that the back was in more shadow.

 

Cambodians can enter the Archaeological Park free – fair enough, it’s their heritage.  While I was around the back of the temple taking pictures, I came across this Cambodian mother and two boys.  The boys were using shanghais to knock down fruit from trees in the surrounding jungle, which they were collecting in their baskets, presumably to sell to tourists in the park “fresh today!”

I am continually impressed by the work ethic, persistence and resourcefulness of these people. 

 

Pat and Woodley venture around the corner of the top floor.  In the bottom left of this picture, you can see the shanghai boys gathering fruit.

 

Pat and Woodley walk out even further, while the shanghai boys keep working.

 

Here’s a closer view of our intrepid explorers.

If you look above the door, you will see a carving over the lintel.  Probably our guide explained this while I was taking pictures, but I didn’t find out about it until later:

Picture from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bakseichamkronglintel.JPG

Later I discovered that “the main sandstone lintel is decorated with a fine carving of Indra standing on his three-headed elephant Airavata. Garlands emanate from either side of Indra” (from Wikipedia).

In Hindu mythology, Indra is king of the gods, and also the god of war and of weather, while in Buddhism, he is one of the protectors of the Buddha.

If I’d known about the lintel at the time, I probably would have climbed the steps to get a better picture of it.  As it was, I didn’t get to climb the steps of this temple.  Feeling a bit uncomfortable after crawling around in the undergrowth taking pictures, I looked down to find that my shoes, socks and the bottom of my modestly long temple-length shorts were covered in black prickles – something like cobbler’s pegs, but thinner, sharper and with a little barb on each one which made them very difficult to remove.  As I walked, the prickles in my shorts were carving patterns into my legs, so instead of climbing up the temple steps, I spent some time painstakingly removing prickles from my shorts to avoid further lacerations, and a possible nasty tropical rash.

 

A plaque beside this temple described it as “a little architectural jewel”.  While “little” wasn’t a word that immediately sprang to mind as a gazed up at it, and tried to fit the whole temple into a shot without immersing myself totally into the surrounding jungle, it certainly was a delight.